Castlevania Appreciation Thread

[alienjesus]

Order of Ecclesia was the first Castlevania game I played, and I still think it's the best Castlevania I've played. And I've basically only played mostly the best ones from what I understand:

- Order of Ecclesia
- Dracula X Chronicles
- Rondo of Blood
- Symphony of the Night
- Super Castlevania IV

[ZeroAX]

I only played the first level, but I sure enjoyed gameloft's clone on the DSware

[MrPopo]

Order of Ecclesia was the first Castlevania game I played, and I still think it's the best Castlevania I've played. And I've basically only played mostly the best ones from what I understand:

- Order of Ecclesia
- Dracula X Chronicles
- Rondo of Blood
- Symphony of the Night
- Super Castlevania IV

You need to get some Castlevania III going.

[alienjesus]

Order of Ecclesia was the first Castlevania game I played, and I still think it's the best Castlevania I've played. And I've basically only played mostly the best ones from what I understand:

- Order of Ecclesia
- Dracula X Chronicles
- Rondo of Blood
- Symphony of the Night
- Super Castlevania IV

You need to get some Castlevania III going.

I wonder how much the NES game goes for on eBay in the UK?

*urk*


Maybe I'll pick it up on Virtual Console sometime...

[Ivo]

The soul system in Aria and Dawn is very good and superior to the other ones (e.g. cards in Circle IIRC) I've played so far. I rather liked Dawn (despite the touch screen gimmick) although possibly Aria is better balanced to be challenging, which those experienced with the series may have appreciated.

[Exhuminator]

Order of Ecclesia was the first Castlevania game I played, and I still think it's the best Castlevania I've played.

I think Symphony just barely nudges it out as the best, but Ecclesia is definitely right there at the top sitting next to it.

All of the handheld GBA and DS Castlevania games are worth your time to play, with the exception of Portrait Of Ruin, that one's kind of meh.

[Ack]

Order of Ecclesia was the first Castlevania game I played, and I still think it's the best Castlevania I've played.

I think Symphony just barely nudges it out as the best, but Ecclesia is definitely right there at the top sitting next to it.

All of the handheld GBA and DS Castlevania games are worth your time to play, with the exception of Portrait Of Ruin, that one's kind of meh.

I may be the odd man out on this, but I really enjoyed Circle of the Moon.

But then, I also enjoyed Lament of Innocence, so...

[Exhuminator]

I may be the odd man out on this, but I really enjoyed Circle of the Moon.

Nah, I'm right there with you, it's a great game. If I were to rank the metroidvania series in order from greatest to least:

Symphony of The Night
Order of Ecclesia
Circle of the Moon
Dawn of Sorrow
Aria of Sorrow
Harmony of Dissonance
Waking up groggy and stubbing your toe on the bed frame at night while you're just trying to make it to the bathroom so you can have an emergency piss at 3am.
Portrait of Ruin

[Sarge]

I guess I have no discrimination on these games, I quite enjoyed all of them.

Someone elsewhere pointed out that HoD's soundtrack was basically done in something resembling the VRC6. I almost wish they'd just straight-up used VRC6 samples, it might have sounded a bit smoother. Some of the compositions are great, it's just the soundfont is pretty iffy. But chippy doesn't bother me, so I didn't rag on the soundtrack as much as most.

Portrait has a lot of fun magic to use. The only real missteps are the revisited areas aren't very interesting, nowhere near how well the inverted castle works in Symphony.

For the record, Symphony is still my favorite, but I think a lot of the other ones come closer to that bar than a lot are willing to admit. Either that, or it's that lack of discrimination again...

I'm going to go with tiers because too many are grouped up and it's hard to sort out which is best...

Tier 1: Symphony
Tier 2: Dawn, Ecclesia
Tier 3: Aria
Tier 4: Portrait, Harmony, Circle

They're all good, though! It's a bit like asking me what my favorite Zelda is, honestly.

[Exhuminator]

It's a bit like asking me what my favorite Zelda is, honestly.

What's your favorite Zelda?